Tag: DIY

A common theme that I notice with build threads and the people who create them, is that if you want something that is out of your reach, you make it yourself. That’s exactly the kind of attitude I found when perusing the non-Datsun area of The 510 Realm and stumbled across this build. The owner of a very well-sorted 510 that I follow had embarked on a new project, but it wasn’t another Datsun, hell, it wasn’t even another car. His latest build saw him decided to create his own version of the newly released Morgan 3-wheeler – and by “create” I mean make the whole damn thing from scratch – in a true exercise of garage DIY.

What can I say about builds like these? High quality mods, high quality images, and high quality documentation, everything we all love in a thread, steered by my favourite kind of builder; one with OCD! Another thing I love about this particular build is watching the owner’s skills progress and improve as time goes on. The choice of car is something we haven’t seen on the site before, we’ve had Supra’s, but never a MKII, so it’s refreshing to read about a platform that can sometimes go unnoticed within the nostalgic Japanese community. There’s so much quality here, from fiberglassing, wiring, welding and CAD design – and over 50 pages of it – so get comfortable!

After featuring a few big-time builds in a row, I thought it was time we get back into a regular car-guy’s project. I’ve been following this thread on and off for a while, and it’s been nothing short of a weld-a-thon and a true exercise in DIY modifying. For someone like me who has recently picked up the MIG welder, it’s been a priceless source of information and inspiration. Each modification is tackled individually, broken down into basic shapes and processes, making it very easy to follow and learn from.

Since I’m a regular Ratsun browser from way back, I became very familiar with a certain green 510 wagon belonging to Greengoon, aka Duane. This wagon was always a bit different from the others, especially with it’s folding ragtop. I always looked forward to updates over the past few years, especially enjoying his DIY solutions to getting the ‘goon sitting closer to the ground and various tyre size testing on later-model OEM wheels. Heading over to the Non-Datsun section of the forum made me realise Duane’s penchant for old cars wasn’t restricted to just Datsuns, as he had another 2 project cars under his belt from the Toyota stable, including one very charismatic ’71 Hilux. I’m not the only one to sit up and take note of Duane’s skills, he was even the subject of his own Depth of Speed video, arguably the best series of automotive videos on the net (if you ask me). Head below to familiarise yourself with this trio of vintage vehicles.

Earlier this year I made two consecutive posts about the automotive exploits of one Retro Rides member by the name of Bruce (aka Mystery Machine), a person who truly understands the appeal of a good build thread. Bruce not only built a very cool MX5 along with a number of other awesome rides, but he also spearheads and bankrolls a communal garage space known as Area52. You should already know what type of guy he is (a die-hard car nut), so it’s no surprise to learn his hands have been less than idle since the last time he graced these pages. I thought I’d do a little ‘catch up’ piece on his latest projects (a Land Rover and a Lotus, can’t get more variance than that!), since I’m enjoying reading them so much myself, it’s only fair to share it with all of you…

An enthusiastic car fan drags his grandfather’s old work truck from his uncles farm in very poor condition, with the intention of restoring it to it’s former state, prior to it’s neglect. Nothing unusual about that, we’ve certainly heard similar stories before, but you don’t usually hear about a job like this being undertaken by someone whose previous automotive experience is limited to changing spark plugs on a Taurus. To my delight (and surprise), the restoration was taken on with vigor, and piece by piece the truck was brought back to life, completing what many other family members said they were going to do, but never did. Right here is the essence of this game we know and love so much, just a guy restoring a car and learning things along the way, doing as much as he can on his own, bringing back a piece of history.

On Friday, a reader by the name of Brad made a request on the Build-Threads Facebook page for a Jeep build. Not wanting to disappoint, I headed to my submissions list and fished out some Jeep links from long-time submitter, Cereal. This particular Jeep starts out with little more than a cab and a grille, which the owner then custom fabricates everything around until a completely custom race-spec buggy is born. What I love about this build is the pure strength and size of the parts used and fabrication techniques that go with them, everything is built to take extreme punishment, including the beefiest skid-plate I’ve ever seen!

It seems the there are many members of the Honda fraternity who still undeniably love the marquee, yet are quite bored of the whole FWD thing. On this website alone there are 3 other builds documenting Hondas being DIY’d away from their standard drivetrain layout. There’s a front-engine RWD F20C CRX, a mid-engine rear wheel drive DC2 Integra, and an AWD Twin Engine Del Sol. This latest build uses a mixture of those combinations, giving us a mid-engine rear wheel drive CRX. Honda, are you listening?

For most people, a 950cc motorbike would be more than adequate in the power stakes, but ‘adequate’ isn’t a term commonly used in the vocabulary of a modifier, is it? Why settle for adequate when you have the means to slap a turbo on the side of your KTM and produce a one-off boost-fed supermotard? Come and see how a former race mechanic works his magic on his own personal machine with some very neat and OEM looking fabrication. Thanks to Jake for submitting.

Did you know this is the 10th bike build featured on Build-Threads.com? Click here to see the others.